Gamaliel has them for $174.75/5000 but you have to pay the $20.00 hazmat fee for an order that are to be shipped. I still have my source here in So. Illinois for $29.00/1000. Oh yeah i forgot Illinois is anti-gun. I better quit buying 'em then. LOL LOL.

It's hit and miss. Shyda's or Richland usually has some. CAC Associates is a good source, but a bit of a drive for you. They had some Winchesters a few days ago. I'd be more worried about shot, since I hear the price will be up by about $5 a bag for the next load.

I agree that the main problem causing shortages is mindless (or selfish) hoarding. In the small shop where I work we get primers, powder, handgun and rifle ammunition is almost minute quantities..biggest score lately was 10K small rifle (lasted two days), 5K small pistol (same day) and a case of 9mm para. A guy, not a regular customer, came in, saw the 9mms and asked how many he could buy. I told him, "all of them, if you really need them, but think about the next guy...or the guy who comes in this afternoon, buys a 9mm handgun and we have no am%mo to sell him". He thought a minute and said, "I guess I'll take two boxes."

People, think! All I ask of our customers is to be realistic. We don't ration but at the same time we ask the customers to be realistic. 99% will be rational about it and the ones that won't, well, we don't need them very much.

Five years ago, I had about ten sleeves of Shotshell primers "on the shelf". Today I have about eight. Five years ago they were less than $80 a sleeve. Today they are just under $150 and rising. I guess "my" senseless hoarding is the cause? I like to keep about a years supply on hand. Today that is about 20% less in quantity than it was five years ago, but about double the cost.

Frank, the small shop about two miles from my home where I get my stuff had SOME 209As when I was there just a few minutes ago. I think they were something like $32/1,000. He's only open evenings from 6:00 - 8:00 and Saturdays from 10:00 - 12:00. I read on here today that no one has rifle and pistol primers - I just bought 1,000 LR benchrest primers and he had several more 1K boxes of all kinds of primers.

It would be a 60 to 75-minute drive for you, depending upon Harrisburg traffic.

ED, I am anxious to get some rifle primers. Must I find your house & draw a 2 mile radius to see what small shop falls withing that circle? Or are you going to be a gentleman & just tell me the name & location?
JOE JORDAN

This excerpt came out of Brownell's "Gun Bench" enewsletter to dealers this morning:

<blockquote>... "In doing our analysis here, we asked ourselves the following three questions and tried to come up with answers. You might want to stop a moment and with a fresh cup of coffee, ask yourself these questions about your business and how you feel about your future.

<blockquote>1. Is this "Obama Gun Sale Bubble" over?<BR><BR>
2. Is demand for firearms and ammunition coming down to the standard demand curve for our business?<BR><BR>
3. What can we do for the remainder of 2009 and all of 2010 to match or beat those high sales in the "Bubble" months of 2008-09?"We came up with some answers, which I'll pass along to you, but they really are only our opinions from our viewpoint. Hopefully you will find something in here which will be beneficial to you in your business.</blockquote>

We believe the insane demand level for tactical firearms is over and future demands for these products will come back down to the industry norms. Keep in mind, though, there have been a huge number of non-traditional firearms buyers making purchases of AR-15's. So there are a lot of customers out there who will still want to accessorize and modify one of the world's most versatile and popular platforms. Definitely still a market for AR-15 "stuff", but a much softer one for the basic platform itself.

The conceal carry/home defense market, however, is starting to heat up and right now is the beginning of a "short boom", not as significant as tactical rifles, but one nonetheless. We don't know how much leg this market can get under it or how long it might run. It is getting lots of play right now in the gun press, so take a look at how you can get into it modestly and watch it closely.

We strongly believe the reloading and ammo markets are still underserved and have strong growth ahead of them. It will take longer to get these markets back to a norm because the primer shortage. The deep fluctuations/price increases in the metals markets from which most of these ammo components are made - lead, copper, brass has an impact on availability and prices. Our industry's share of these markets is not even a wrinkle, and we have neither control nor any leverage we can bring into play. We just have to wait for the metals markets to settle out.

Shotgun and hunting markets did not seem to have the favorable run-up as the tactical weapons market. From what we think we see, there might be some returning strength. It looks like reservations for hunts have still to recover. We definitely expect those to slowly come back, but quite possibly not until folks are more comfortable the economy has settled down and a general recovery is underway. Hunts are discretionary, more easily put off."...</blockquote>

Frank I've substituted Fiochhi primers for all my reloading. They are still under $30/1000 in my area which is still more expensive than I used to pay for name brand primers.

So far I like them. No problems except they require far more pressure to seat during their initial reload and once used in any case you will need to continue to use them since they are oversized compared to name brands.

Since I can pick up as many Gun Club hulls as I need, which reload just fine, I will continue to use them.

Joe, the shop I use is Shiremanstown Sports Shop in the small town of Shiremanstown, which is between Camp Hill and Mechanicsburg, PA. The owner and sole employee is a crotchety old phart named Hiram Allison, a trapshooter who has just about anything you could need for shooting in stock and his prices are very competitive with Shyda's. I just bought 10 flats of STS shells from him and could have saved three bucks a flat if I wanted to drive 414 miles to the Cardinal Center.

The shop phone number is (717) 761-4679. His hours, as posted above, are very limited since he was involved in a serious traffic accident a couple of years ago. Hiram's is one of those small shops that are becoming more extinct with each passing year.